A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

This Business Guide is designed to assess your company's current business-education partnerships and determine the extent to which they are linked to key business and school objectives.

You can use this Guide to:

• Assess your company's current educational initiatives (or consider your options if this is a new area for your company).

• Build on existing educational initiatives to create more strategic business-education partnerships.

• Consider your educational approaches within the context of national priority areas and revise them accordingly.

• Determine to what degree your corporate culture supports business-education partnerships.

• Evaluate the outcome of programs, practices and policies designed to meet business and school concerns.

This Business Guide is organized around worksheets which provide step-by-step procedures for accomplishing specific tasks. As you complete the worksheets in each section, you will assess, develop, and evaluate your educational approaches. Most of the worksheets contain background material (on the back) about the worksheet to be completed. It is suggested that you read the background material before you complete the worksheets. In addition, resources, case examples and more detailed information about specific topics are included in the Business Guide Addendum.

• Human resource staff members interested in policies that promote employee and company involvement in education.

• Work-life managers with responsibilities for designing company policies that promote employee work-life balance.

• Community relations practitioners responsible for the development and implementation of community educational initiatives.

• Administrators committed to linking business objectives to educational programs.

• Education managers who drive employee and community education programs.

• Training and organizational development staff focused on employee skill building and growth, including creating a positive organizational culture.

Completing this Business Guide increases the chances that your company's educational approaches (policies, programs and practices) will:

• "Fit" with your organizational needs,

• Link to fundamental business and school objectives, and

• Reflect national priority areas.

After your company has developed a comprehensive business plan for its educational approaches, Investing in Partnerships for Student Success-a companion guide for use with this guide-will help you to move the partnership forward to achieve the stated goals and objectives. Investing in Partnerships for Student Success focuses on recruiting community stakeholders and creating a vision for the partnership. Strategies to implement action plans, measure progress and review results are detailed. This publication is also available at 1-800-USA-LEARN or at pfie.ed.gov.

[Acknowledgments]

[Step 1: Create a Corporate Environment that Supports Educational Involvement]